American Airlines / US Airways merger

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PRR 60 said:
The merger completes today (December 9). For the time being, US and AA will continue to operate as separate carriers. US will leave Star Alliance and join One World on March 31, 2014.
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I wonder if there will be a 1:1 ratio US > AA > CX path available prior to April. Or a 1:1 US > CX path with 90K return J after the switch to OW. Sky Dream and Stardust Alliance have been killing off positive network benefits for years now. In my view One World retains much of their original benefits and has even added a few more over the years. So in that sense I think this is a positive change. Other than that it's almost universally bad though. Seriously, US is every bit as much of a joke as America Worst.
 
It appears US>AA will happen in January, but onward to CX and other OW carriers waits until OW membership on March 31. Interestingly, USDM will retain earning/redeeming relationships with Aegean, Air China, Air New Zealand, Avianca, Ethiopian Airlines, Eva, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, TAM, TAP and Turkish Airways even after leaving *A.
 
When they finally merge under one operating certificate in a few month's, that should be (I hope) the last of the "Cactus" call sign on air traffic radio..... ;)
 
AFAIK they can still choose to use whatever they want to use as call sign irrespective of which operating certificate they use.

The combined United operating certificate is based on the Continental operating certificate. The old United one was retired. The call sign used is United, not Continental.
 
Unless I'm mistaken the primary purpose of a call sign is that of a clear and concise alias. It's intended to quickly and clearly differentiate airlines that may otherwise sound too similar or be too tedious to repeat in short rapid communications. So far as I'm aware it's not really intended for passengers to hear or even to be aware of such names. Unless you were scanning for airline transmissions or listening to CH9 on UA metal or reading airline forums I'm not sure how you'd ever come across such terms. As a result I'm not sure why any given passenger would even care what their callsign was. You might as well pick your routing based on how the flight numbers are interpreted by your synesthesia.
 
jis said:
While it is certainly true that a random passenger would not know or care, clearly the discussion here is among people who are aware for various reasons and at least a couple that seem to care for whatever reason.
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Right On! :)
 
jis said:
AFAIK they can still choose to use whatever they want to use as call sign irrespective of which operating certificate they use.

The combined United operating certificate is based on the Continental operating certificate. The old United one was retired. The call sign used is United, not Continental.
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True. And since US Air CEO is now in charge of the merged company, a fair chance that the US Air certificate will be the surviving one in this case.

But confident that they will use "American" as the call sign, just as they have kept the American identity, similar to the United merger...

I wonder what made them decide to use Continental's certificate in that case? I don't know what advantages or legalities choosing one over the other involves...
 
Here's another question....will the new American quit flying into Tel-Aviv before the certificates are combined?

Just like they did before fully absorbing TWA into American a dozen years ago........

To refresh memories, the Israeli government was not too thrilled with them for pulling out without giving severance pay to its employee's based there....
 
railiner said:
True. And since US Air CEO is now in charge of the merged company, a fair chance that the US Air certificate will be the surviving one in this case.

But confident that they will use "American" as the call sign, just as they have kept the American identity, similar to the United merger...
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The surviving CEO and the operating certificate are two different things, and the latter would be decided based on what makes the most sense operationally.
 
Trogdor said:
railiner said:
True. And since US Air CEO is now in charge of the merged company, a fair chance that the US Air certificate will be the surviving one in this case.

But confident that they will use "American" as the call sign, just as they have kept the American identity, similar to the United merger...
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The surviving CEO and the operating certificate are two different things, and the latter would be decided based on what makes the most sense operationally.
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Agreed. But do you happen to know what might be the differences that they would base that decision on?
 
I'm by no means an expert, but AFAIK, it has to do with things such as operational procedures, fleet maintenance practices, training standards, etc.
 
Interesting that the FAA would allow different standards in those area's.....I would have thought the regulations would dictate those, and they would be more or less uniform across the board....
 
The regulations state what requirements must be met, but not necessarily how those requirements are met.
 
The aircraft livery decision for the new AA has been opened up to a vote by the employees of AA and US. The choice is between the new AA livery, including the flag tail, and the new AA livery, but with the old AA tail. My vote would be for the traditional AA tail, but I'm beginning to warm just a tiny little bit to the new tail.

In other news, AA will retain existing US heritage livery aircraft (Allegheny, PSA, Piedmont), and will add new heritage livery aircraft representing pre-merger AA and US, and TWA.

Wings
 
I never much cared for the TWA Red and White but always thought hat the Traditional AA Silver Planes with Red was the Classiest thing in the Air!!! (I miss Braniff's "Flying Colors" and Pan AM's Blue and White! )

I'd vote for the old AA Tail also! Agony Airlines, uh US Air i never cared for! Eastern Ditto!!!
 
My favorite TWA livery was this one:

lhr52.jpg


Pardon, my age is showing :) That is a TWA Boeing 707 (one of my all time favorite airliners) at London Heathrow, many many moons ago.

Then again, my favorite Air India livery was also on a 707-420, Rolls Royce powered one no less:

b707-420_air_india_1978_437_vt-dny.jpg


Frankly, many of the modern liveries are pretty boring compared to these. Incidentally I have flown in this specific aircraft back the heyday of 707s.

Here is a 747 in the same TWA livery that I like:

2245593.jpg
 
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I loved the last TWA livery before AA took them over. There was something about the addition of blue and the gold globe that at the time looked fresh and new after all the issues they had post flight 800.

TWA%20Boeing%20757-200.jpg
 
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